My computer automatically opens one of my Hotmail email addresses and will not allow me to use a password or choose another email address. How do I correct it as I don’t want this automatic login from Hotmail? I want to enter my email and password each time.
Laurie
The gateway to your Hotmail email account is its login page. At the time of writing, this page has two sections – right and left; refer the image below. The one on the right has the login fields, one for the Windows Live ID and the other for the password.
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Below these are a couple of options that can help you access email faster. How? Read on…
Logging at your Hotmail account is pretty straightforward. You enter the ID and password and click the “Sign in” button. But if the “Remember my password” option was checked in the past, you won’t get to see the Hotmail sign in page because the service will log you in automatically.
“Remember my password” – Hotmail sign in
The “Remember my password” option enables the web browser to store your login details. So when you access the Hotmail login page the next time, the username and password are sent automatically to the server and you are taken directly to the email account. Using the “Remember my password” option helps in faster access of the Hotmail account because it bypasses the sign in page completely.
How to stop automatic login by Hotmail
If you want to do away with the Hotmail automatic login and enter the password each time, follow the steps below.
- Once in your Hotmail email account, locate the “sign out” link which is typically found at the top right of the page. Click on it.
- You would now be logged out of the account and presented with the MSN portal home page.
- Close this browser window and open a fresh one.
- Go to the Hotmail sign in page.
- This time you would not be logged in automatically at Hotmail and will be asked to enter the account password. By the way, if this doesn’t happen please refer how to clean the web browser cache and saved passwords which would surely solve the issue – also read section below.
- Do not check the “Remember my password” henceforth.
Browsers save login information including passwords – change these settings
Web browsers can save the information you enter in online forms. This includes login details – the username and password. If Hotmail keeps logging you in automatically, the program settings need to be changed. Here are the instructions for the top 3 web browsers. Also delete all the saved passwords information.
- Internet Explorer: From “Tools” -> “Internet Options” -> “Content” tab -> click “Settings” button in the “AutoComplete” section and make sure “User names and passwords on forms” is unchecked.
- Firefox: “Tool” -> “Options” -> “Security” tab -> “Passwords section” -> uncheck “Remember passwords for sites“.
- Chrome: From the wrench icon, select “Options” and in the “Passwords” section, choose “Never save passwords”.
Hotmail automatic login – advantages and disadvantages
As you have learnt, Hotmail automatic login is enabled when the “Remember my password” option has been checked. The main advantage of this feature is to save time because you no longer need to go via the sign in page and enter the login details.
However, and I have mentioned this in several other articles, “Remember my password” is like a double edged sword. Though it offers some convenience, you might forget the account password if you don’t use it often. And finally, do not check this option on a public computer or even your home computer if you want to keep your email private.
You may also be interested in doing the opposite of what has been described in this post – check out how to login automatically at your email account.
I have not been able to automatically sign in by using
the “Remember my password/security word”. It is not
working for me. Here of late I have been having to
enter my name and security word every time.
Make sure your browser is accepting cookies and is able to save passwords – check under the settings.
This unfortunately didn’t work for me – I was trying to get hotmail to forget my password after my other half helpfully stored it for me. But when I signed out and went to sign back in again as suggested, it still had the password stored with no “forget” option, which there used to be.
@Gytha, modify the browser settings to prevent the program from saving the login information.
You NEVER Want to save your password in ANY WEB BROWSER. Using they are using and MD5 hash encryption, which is beyond the scope of what I’m trying to say. Basically if you save your password, hackers can easily obtain it. For example, if you saved your password I could easier use a program to show the chararcters of your password by using a simple browser password hack program which anyone can use. DON’T save your passwords. Also due to the encryption today most passwords can be hacked if enough effort is put into it. There a multiple thing you can do to protect yourself. One thing I would recommend is to make sure you password is at least 14 charatacters long and contains numbers and symbols.
If you can’t think of a 14 lenth password, just double your password or triple it.
Example: Say your password is : MyP@ss1, simply write – MyP@ss1MyP@ss1
Remember browser passwords are very easiy hacked if saved. Dont use a word such as : your name or any word in the dictionary. Because a hacker can use what is known as a dictionary attack and obtain your password – there is also something call war driving – which is not very common any more, but it basically people just guessing your password based on info they know about you, such as your Birthday, child name, home address, etc.
What you should get out of this: DONT SAVE your password anywhere in a browser (I dont care what antivirus or firewall software you have, it wont matter). Also best practice for today is to create a password that is 14 characters long, and contains symbols and numbers.
Hope this helps